Economic upturn in few months:Obama

Barack Obama has told Americans that he sees signs of economic upturn, but urged them to be patient and look beyond their “short-term interests”. The US President said his plan budget would build a stronger economy which would mean America did not face a repeat crisis in 10 or 20 years.

“We will recover from this decline,” he told in Washington DC.

His $3.6tn (£2.5tn) budget faces its first tests in Congress this week.

He stressed that immediate action was necessary, and urged both Congress and Americans in general to support his plan.

“The budget I submitted to Congress will build our economic recovery on a stronger base, so that we do not face another crisis like this 10 or 20 years from now.”

“We have made the strong choices necessary to cut our scarcity in half by the end of my first term – even under the most negative estimates,” he argued.

Mr Obama urged US citizens to be patient.

“It will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of responsibility we have to each other, that’s when we succeed,” he said.

On Wednesday, he is due to meet Senate Democrats in a bid to gather support for an increased deficit, considered to be $1.4tn for next year.

A Congressional budget office study released last Friday’s estimation that President Obama’s budget would generate deficits totalling $9.3tn over the next decade.

“If these plans are carried out, we run the risk of looking like a Third World country,” Mr McConnell said.

Mr Obama is also preparing for a European trip next week that includes the London G20 summit on the global economic crisis.

Read Full Post »

DON 2 to bag SRK again

The first term of Oye its Friday may have come to an end, but it looks like Farhan Akhtar still has a bunch to talk about, which includes very thrilling news for Shah Rukh Khan fans.

“Yes, Shah Rukh Khan is again going to be the Don in Don 2. Most of the main characters will be the same as the first movie, but we will also have a lot of new bombshells in it,” Farhan said.

While shooting for Don 2 is at least a year away, Farhan’s got his hands full with the psychological thriller Kartik Calling Kartik co-starring Deepika Padukone.

“Right now, I am only thinking about Kartik Calling Kartik. I am glad to have got Deepika in the movie. She is a very sweet girl and the film is a emotional thriller,” he said.

With projects with SRK and Deepika in hand, Farhan certainly seems to have a soft corner for the cast of Om Shanti Om.

Read Full Post »

Collarbone surgery for Armstrong

Champ cyclist Lance Armstrong will have surgery on Wednesday to repair a broken collarbone he suffered in a fall during a comeback race in Spain this week.

“At home finally. Surgery at 7am tomorrow,” he wrote, — as sending short messages on the Web site — Tuesday evening from Austin, Texas, where he lives.

Armstrong record his day in a series of Twitter messages.

“Back in Austin. Headed to the doctor’s office.”

“At the doc’s office. I guess it wasn’t such a ‘clean’ fracture after all. Bummer.”

“Getting a CT scan now.”

Emerging from a hospital with his arm in a sling Monday, Armstrong said he was “miserable.”

“I just need to relax a couple of days and then make a plan,” he said.

Armstrong, riding for Team Astana, crashed about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the end of the first stage of the five-day Vuelta Ciclista a Castilla y Leon race. He said he has never before broken a collarbone in his 17 years as professional.

“It’s pretty painful,” he said. “Just wait and see how it heals.”

The crash took down several riders, but Armstrong appeared to be the only one injured.

“That’s cycling,” he said. “It’s nobody’s fault. Collapse happens all the time.”

As they came within a few miles of the finish, Armstrong said, racers started picking up speed and jockeying for position.

“It happens quickly when it happens,” he said. “It could have been worse.”

Armstrong, 37, proclaimed that he was coming out of retirement last year and was using the Spanish race as a warm-up for the Tour de France.

He could be out for three or four weeks because of the collarbone injury, said Jacinto Vidarte, spokesman for the five-day Spanish race.

Armstrong, who is attempting a second comeback after retiring in 2005, was planning to race May 9-31 in the Giro d’Italia, one of Europe’s most prestigious and gruelling stage races. He said Monday that his plans for racing in the Giro were now “problematic.”

His first comeback came in 1998, two years after he was detected with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival.

Read Full Post »

Pakistan Cricketers excluded from the IPL 2nd Edition

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has made it clear that no Pakistani player would take part in second edition of the IPL although it has been shifted out from India to South Africa.“We know that some players really want to play in the IPL but I don’t think that they would be a part of it this year. They may be included in the game next year but not now. These are the unkind realities of life,” The PCB’s Chief Operating Officer, Saleem Altaf, said.

Following the move in the venue, several Pakistan cricketers expressed their wish to play in the cricketing extravaganza, as earlier their government had excluded them from visiting India due to rise in tension in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Speedster Shoaib Akhtar too had shown his interest in the league saying: “For me, it is not over till it’s over. I haven’t given up. It’s up to the authorizations. If they call upon my services, I will provide them.”

PCB chief Ijaz Butt had earlier said that he would contact the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) to facilitate the participation of the players in the league, but now it seems that there would no Pakistani fireworks during the IPL’s second season in South Africa.

Read Full Post »